Hey folks, Harry here with the mighty Capone's look at a pair of... wildly different films... I've seen one of the two, and BEAT isn't here in Austin yet, so I haven't had the pleasure yet... But I'm betting heavy that they have very little in common. Here's Capone....
Hey Harry. Capone in Chicago here with reviews of two movies, one opening this weekend, and another film from the Chicago Lesbian and Gay Film Festival that will probably never open. See if you can tell which is which.
THE 6TH DAY
I have deliberately not been reading reviews of this film, so forgive me if I repeat information that has been mentioned on this site before. But I didn't want my mind clouded by people that hate an Arnold movie before it's even been thought of (you know who you are). Arnold Schwarzenegger has made worse movies than THE 6TH DAY (especially in recent years), which I know doesn‚t exactly sound like a ringing endorsement, but what are you gonna do? THE 6TH DAY certainly features Arnold in one of the better and most complex plotlines he‚s ever been a part of, but, again, that doesn‚t really scream, „GO SEE THIS MOVIE!‰
One aspect of the film that I enjoyed most was that Arnold is not cast as the heroic type. He‚s a regular guy (as regular is a guy can be who looks and sounds like Arnold) in the near future who owns a small helicopter service that runs thrill seekers up snow-capped mountains for snow boarding. In this future earth, cloning animals and individual organs has become commonplace. When a pet dies, you can have it replaced with an identical clone by a company called Re-Pet (the film‚s use of fake but real-sounding company names is great). However, cloning an entire human is illegal because the complexities of the human brain do no transfer accurately from original person to his/her clone. Or so we‚ve been told.
It turns out that a pioneer in the field of cloning (Robert Duvall) has secretly been perfecting the process so that humans can be cloned. The head of the company that Duvall works for, played by the spindly Tony Goldwyn, believes he is doing great things for the world and that now anyone who deserves to live longer can be closed indefinitely.
Through a plot device that I‚m still not sure I understand, Arnold is cloned accidentally (I hate when that happens) and his clone is sent home to his wife and daughter just in time for his birthday party. The thing about clones is that, in most cases, they don‚t know that they‚re clones, which causes the obvious confusion when the real Arnold finally confronts the Arnold clone. There is, of course, a resistance movement against all forms of cloning and they factor into this complication equation as well.
There‚s a lot to like in THE 6TH DAY and a few things that got on my nerves. For example, how many more movies to I have watch that feature the villains wearing black leather or vinyl clothing (usually trenchcoats of some sort). It just doesn‚t seem like good fashion sense when you‚re running around chasing someone or fighting with them. How much movement do you really have? What happened to the good old days when the baddies wore jogging suits? Also, there‚s a twist at the end involving Arnold and his clone that 1). doesn‚t have the impact that it should, and 2) makes no sense when you really think about it. (I won‚t give it away, but I wish I could just to explain to you how stupid it is.)
Despite these few misgivings, I actually enjoyed most of THE 6TH DAY. The technological improvements in the near-future world are clever. (One funny twist is that tobacco has be outlawed and people smoke cigars as if it were some illegal drug, and get a buzz from it.) The story, aside from a few gaping holes, is fairly solid and original. Yes, there are touches of THE MATRIX, BLADE RUNNER, and TOTAL RECALL, but not so many that you‚re distracted. And I liked seeing Arnold as a friendly man, good father, and supportive husband. I also liked the all-too-few scenes with his business partner, Michael Rapaport (the busiest man in movies right now). In case nobody‚s notice, Arnold isn‚t the hot property he once was. With films like ERASER, JINGLE ALL THE WAY, BATMAN & ROBIN, and END OF DAYS being his latest offering, it‚s nice to see him return to his sci-fi/fantasy roots. THE 6TH DAY isn‚t a great film, but it‚s a step in the right direction.
BEAT
I've seen a couple documentaries about the Beat Generation writers of the 1950s. Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kerouac, you know the people I'm talking about. BEAT focuses on the largely sexless, but still very close relationship William S. Burroughs (Keifer Sutherland) had with his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, played here as care-free, desperately lonely, and devoted by Courtney Love.
Thanks to NAKED LUNCH we all know about the untimely demise of Vollmer at Burroughs' drunken, gun-toting hand during a game of William Tell. BEAT attempts to give us insight into the years that lead to that moment and the seedy and slightly perverse nature of their relationship. Despite strong performances by Love, Sutherland, Normal Reedus as Lucien Carr, and Ron Livingston as Ginsberg, the film never really amounts to anything. We see various combinations of these famous names cavorting in New York or Mexico, spending days on end traveling, talking, and drinking like the true substance abusers they all were. Their lives look empty and meaningless, and no real attention is paid to what it was that inspired these men and women to create and inspire generations of writers to come.
I go into bio-pics to learn something, anything, about a life; this film is about a death, a death that, according to Burroughs, opened up his creative potential to write some of his best and most well-known works. Joan's death is also said to have inspired Ginsberg's most famous work "Howl." BEAT paints Joan Vollmer as the sacrificial lamb of her generation, but it's clear her life was so much more than that, but you wouldn't know it from this film. BEAT is a disappointment containing some great acting, but no real sense of inspiration.
That's all from me, Harry. If all goes according to plan, I'll have my take on THE GRINCH for you tomorrow. See ya.
Ya mugs, Send your mail To me.... Capone, OR ELSE!!!
